Please, Be Yourself Around Me
by Cerzylaneum'Callist-11
Summary: It's not fair that the Turtles have to live in secrecy...to never be able to spend time outside in daylight ...to never be able to love. April feels horrible for them. And she so wishes that those 23-year-old reptiles could meet her four friends... (no flames) RaphxOC, LeoxOC, MikeyxOC, DonniexOC
1. Chapter 1

**Finally, I can post this! I'm a huge TMNT fan, and I'm happy to say that this is my very first Ninja Turtle story. I had created many plots for the Turtles, so I warn you ahead, there might be a looooot of Turtle stories in Fanfiction by me.  
Be easy on me, alright? Remember: FIRST turtle story.**

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Turtles, Master Splinter, April, Casey, or anyone else, okay? All I own are my beautiful OCs …. That's right; I'm an OC maker c:

Enjoy!

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_Chapter 1_

"Okay, and it needs double-layer cheese, okay? Don't forget that, dude. I'm serious. The cheese is important. And yummy. I'm serious, if you step foot in this apartment _without _a double-layered cheese pizza, I'd –"

"Laylaah, it's _just a pizza_. No need to threaten anyone!" April exclaimed.

"Dudette, chill. All I was gonna say was that I'd be very sad," the long, bright blonde-haired girl replied, rolling her eyes.

"Alright, alright. Whatever. Are we going to play this or what?" The red-head asked impatiently, shaking the game box of Monopoly. Clinking and rustling thumped inside the cardboard box.  
"Aww, it took me forever to organize the pieces," a dirty-blonde grumbled, rubbing her head in irritation at April.

"Sorry," she replied, opening the lid to reorganize the contents.

Inside the apartment, April sat with four friends of hers from middle school. The five women, now around their twenties, felt the need to finally relax from their jobs and spend some time together, even though April's friends all live with each other.  
A small brunette sat in a chair, reading a thick novel, while a raven-head flipped a knife in the air, just as you would flip a coin.

"And why are we here again?" The raven asked in monotone, a hand holding her weight on a wall with her other sending her knife in the air.  
April sent her gaze to her. "Because you're starting to scare me on how much you love your job, Rogue."

"Oh yeah, I just _love _spending my days with disgusting scumbags who'd rather hit on me then buy anything," she muttered, sarcasm dripping from her words.  
April's friend, 'Rogue', spent her days at a weapon shop, with her department being mostly knives and swords of sorts. Of course she loved working along those sharp objects, but she hated some of her customers.

Guess that's life. Can't have something you love without also having something that annoys you.

"Hey …hey" Laylaah asked the reading bruinette. "Hey …hey….heyheyheyheyheyheyheyhey, Echo …watcha readin', dudette?" The bright blonde-headed woman jumped over her chair to look at the pages over her small shoulder.  
She pronounced the word 'Echo' as 'eh-cho' in friendly mockery. The brunette squeaked, the only actual sounds she makes, and turned the cover over for the looker to see. It turned out to be a scientific novel with plant information listed.

Laylaah blinked slowly, then put an index finger to the side of her mouth in thinking. "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssss there pictured of mega-ba-docious awesome plant dudes that are evil or something?"

The brunette shook her head.

"Eeeeeeeewwwwww," face scrunched up, she jumped away in disgust. Instead, she found interest in the television, when April turned the News channel to Spongebob Squarepants.

"Anyways," the dirty-blonde woman started, "how are you, April? Is your work okay?"  
"It's been fine, thanks," she replied. And she was honest. She now worked at a daycare, and she enjoyed it. April loved kids, and could not wait until she and Casey, though he has yet to propose to her, would have their own.  
Though, as much as she loved him so, she'd been afraid to even speak of children yet. He's such a goof, that man was. Such a goof that he might want more time to goof off then have a son or daughter.

"Those children must be a handful for you, huh?" She joked with the redhead, patting her head while setting the Monopoly board up after organizing pieces and money.  
April laughed with her, brushing the hairs that wiggled their way out of her neat ponytail behind an ear. "I guess so. But you know how much I love them, Jeanette."

"Of course," she smiled. "Now, who wants to be which piece?"

"I wanna be the car! Vrrrrrooooomm!" Laylaah shouted, flipping herself over the couch back toward the table where the board game rested.

"Guess that makes me the bitch, eh?" Roxanne, or 'Rogue', walked over and picked up the dog, smirking.

"Melodeii, what about you?"

Once she had joined the rest of them, Melodeii had pointed across the board to the tiny little thimble.

"Ah, the oceans. The seas. So gentle, yet so rough. And both beautiful, large mirrors that carry the unknown. I shall be the boat," Jeanette sighed peacefully, placing her piece on 'Go'.  
The five played once April chose her piece.  
There were harsh decisions of property bribing, money loss, and the most God-awful cursed devil-fights of ownership themselves: the Railroads.

Those goddamn Railroads.

As the battle of death progressed, April, drinking a Coke in seriousness, began to think about the boys. The turtles.  
God, she felt so sorry for them, even though they may not know it. I mean, the guys are all twenty-three. They're just like other normal men … in personality. It's just not fair, she thought. They're so normal in personality like other men their age, but they have to spend their lives hidden in shadows and _in the sewer of New York. _Though they don't seem to mind it, she knows they do.  
She knows that, even though they have been taught many great fighting techniques others do not comprehend, they wish to move and belong freely in the light.  
They wish that they could have more friends, bye their own items from stores without the help of Casey and herself.

And maybe … they even wish to know love, outside their family love.

But to that, she wasn't sure. But she _did _know that at least Leo, Mikey, and Donnie wanted a close friend, just like Raph and Casey. Someone to connect to.

And she was sure they wanted love, too. Well, maybe not Raph: he would probably scare her away or hurt her feelings to when she'd dump him.

Or he'd hurt her physically.

But Mikey would very much like at least a funny friend, she thought, looking over at Laylaah, who was staring her game-piece down in concentration.  
"Lay, are you okay?" She asked the woman.

She nodded, eyes still fixed on the racecar. "It's just … this itty-bitty toy thingie dude could totally need some comic book stickers on the sides, y'know? That'll make it totally awesome!"

April smiled inwardly and out. But then frowned.

_'If only they could meet.'_


	2. Chapter 2: the Internet

Donnie rubbed his hand across his face in feebleness. The olive-toned turtle sat in a black and grey office chair. In front of him was a white desktop computer. The light from the screen illuminated his glum expression and the dark laboratory/room dimly. An adult dating website flashed brightly. He sighed.

The only reason he registered an account was to meet someone with similar interests. He didn't even care if the person was a male, he just wanted to converse with.  
Mikey didn't care much for helpful knowledgeable facts or information, and neither did Raph. Leo might be able to deal with his babble, but he'd most likely be more interested in training or meditating.  
And Master Splinter probably wouldn't want to speak to him whilst his 'shows' played. Splinter … he had aged greatly over the years. He had more silver hairs in his fur then possibly countable. His eyes had grown even softer then what they were when the turtles were little hatchlings. And now, Donnie noticed worriedly, his grip of his staff had weakened a little. As did his grim on other things as well, like the last morning, when Leo poured Master Splinter a cup of fresh tea, he hardly had taken a sip before his fingers slipped from the small white handle, sending the cup toward the ground.  
He had them all worried.  
But the man still had a hell of a lot of life inside of him. Though sometimes he seemed to be so delicate, he'd whip you in the back of the head before you could even call him 'old'.

Donatello watched as all the statuses of sexually active people popped up promptly, his chocolate brown eyes looking in dismay. All they ever talked about was getting together at places to 'get freaky' or declared their sexual needs for someone and wouldn't mind showing them in pictures via Skype.  
Of course, he himself never received any messages regarding that subject.

His profile picture was a kit rabbit poking its nose into an orange slice.

Not the most 'sexy-licious' photo out on the Internet.

In fact, he didn't even have friends on his profile.  
_'Obviously,' _he thought, mentally rolling his eyes. Who would want to be friends with a guy who, not only has a baby bunny and a piece of fruit for a profile photo, has listed in his interests basically the poster card for 'dork'?

_'Jesus, why not comment 'loser' on my profile, while you're at it? I'm pretty much begging down at your feet to do so.'_

Looking jealously at other male members' profile pictures, he grumbled when he saw their faces. Normal colors of skin …. Normal noses …. Normal head shapes …

Perfect.

Unlike himself.

He slammed, without meaning to, his hands on the sides of his desk and shoved himself away, the force making the chair's wheels spin backwards. With the computer chair squeaking with loss of weight, he stood up and left the lab. He walked tiredly toward the also dimly-lit kitchen and grabbed a coffee cup from one of their cupboards. Filling it with now cold coffee from the pot, he fixed the coffee maker up for tomorrow's batch and tracked his way back to his room.

To his unpleasant surprise, his dear orange-masked little brother was running his fingers over his keys, chuckling.

"What are you doing, Mikey?!" Placing his cup on a lab table, he skidded over to him.

The dim light made Mikey's teeth glow when he grinned up at his unnerved brother. "Dude, I didn't know you were lookin' for a laaaadyyy!"

Blushing a dark green, Donnie shoved him out of his chair and pointed toward the door with one of his three, large fingers. "Out," he ordered.

Sighing dramatically, as if hurt, Michelangelo stood. Then shoved Donnie into his own computer chair and spun him to face the screen.

"Maybe if you be nicer to me more, bro, I'd help ya find a girl," he smirked, hand flying in a wave of sorts to gesture to the set of females on the screen. On the screen was a list of all of the website's women who are currently living right there in New York.  
"You know that's impossible, Mikey," he muttered.

"Hey, she could be blind, ya know."

"Get out."

And with that, Mikey rolled his eyes and stepped out of the room. Donnie was about to click on the red 'x' in the right corner of the webpage, but his eyes flicked toward a specific photo.  
It was … a picture of a little cartoon robot with a pancake on its head, syrup dripping over the sides of its makeshift hat. He stared at the picture. 

It was the first one he had seen that didn't have a female trying to pass as seductive.  
Curious, he moved the mouse arrow and clicked on the picture. Roughly two seconds later, the webpage switched towards her profile.  
Analyzing the information of another's biography in front of him, Donatello stared long at the page.  
Her interests were completely in sync with his own.

And her penname was Sadalbari.


End file.
